Instead, Walker announced
Wednesday a hybrid approach that he says will drop the state's uninsured
non-elderly adults from 14 percent to 7 percent.

Walker's
plan would tighten the income threshold to qualify for Medicaid, but
also lift the cap on a program that covers childless adults. He says the
net effect would insure 224,580 more people.

Walker was
among the last Republican governors to decide whether to move forward
with the expansion. Six Republican governors have agreed to the Medicaid
expansion.

Wisconsin's hospitals and many medical and
health advocacy groups had urged Walker to accept the federal money to
pay for the expansion of services.

The governor says his upcoming budget proposal includes entitlement
reforms intended to make people less dependent on government assistance,
such as requiring worker training for able people who are receiving
food stamp assistance and increasing the number of required job searches
to remain eligible for unemployment insurance.
"With these Medicaid reforms, we will preserve an essential safety
net for our neediest, while protecting our state's taxpayers from
uncertainty," the governor said in a written statement Wednesday. "In
Wisconsin, we made tough, but prudent, decisions in the last two years
to get our state on the right track. We truly understand the
consequences of avoiding tough choices. Our plan safeguards Wisconsin
taxpayers from unnecessary risk and builds on Wisconsin's strong track
record of providing affordable health care to our people."
Reactions fell along party lines.
Assembly Speaker Robin
Vos (R-Burlington) said, "Governor Walker said we're not going to take
the federal government's lead, we're going to try and solve it the
Wisconsin way. And we're doing it by saying, number one, at the end of
our program's implementation, 225,000 more people in Wisconsin are going
to have insurance than they do today."
"In the end, if he's
worried about costs down the road, I believe it was the Kaiser
Foundation that send in ten years we would save $500 million, so it's a
win-win; we insure almost everybody, if not everybody, creating 10,000
jobs. And I think we're making a mistake by not taking it all," Senator
Dave Hansen (D-Green Bay) said.
"If Governor Walker cared about building a strong middle class and a
healthy workforce, he would accept all available funding to strengthen
BadgerCare and give 175,000 more working Wisconsinites access to
economic stability through affordable health care," Senate Democratic
Leader Chris Larson said in a written statement. "Had Governor Walker
chosen another path, 175,000 more working Wisconsinites could have
access to health care, reports show 10,500 new jobs could be created,
and Wisconsin could save $495 million over the next 10 years."